Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Purcey down, Cecil up, other moves

It seemed like only a matter of time until this move was made, considering David Purcey’s persistent struggled through the first month. Purcey has been shipped out to Triple-A Las Vegas and the Blue Jays have summoned lefty Brett Cecil.

Other pitching moves: Up from Vegas are Robert Ray and Brian Wolfe, down to Vegas are Brian Burres and Bryan Bullington. Burres was unspectacular in two starts for the Jays and Bullington, well, six walks in six innings isn’t going to cut it.

With Purcey and Burres gone, the Jays need starters for Saturday and for Tuesday, May 5. Cecil’s last outing was this past Tuesday, so he will make his debut on Tuesday. Ray has been working as a starter and last pitched on Sunday, so he will make his big league debut tomorrow.

Ricky Romero is also eligible to come of the 15-day disabled list on May 5, so we’ll see. Jays will likely give him a little extra time to come back from the strained right oblique that’s been ailing him. More details after I get to the ballpark this afternoon.

So, stay tuned…

~JB

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8 Comments

First “shake-up” of the season for the pitching staff.
I think it’s a good move sending Purcey down to work on his control. I don’t think he’ll be down for long though, i’m sure we’ll see him in a couple months.
I am looking forward to seeing Cecil get a start, it would be nice for all/most of our young pitcher to get a couple starts this year so we can see where they all stack up.

Although, I must say I’m surprised the Jays called up Cecil, it’s going to be fun to see both him and Robert Ray.him. Hopefully Purcey gets his confidence back in AAA, but with the number of soon to be ready guys coming, he’d better not take too long.

What do you guys think about the possibility of turning Purcey into a closer? I realize that i) he has control issues and ii) it is premature to remove a guy with his upside into the closing role at this point in his career. However, Purcey has overwhelming stuff at times and, if he was only required to get three outs, he might be able to come out fire-balling and dominate opposing hitters: just food for thought!

I mentioned earlier that Purcey looked a lot like Kelvim Escobar–both power arms with up and down control problems. Escobar did some closing in his career, but he could bring it at 98 mph if I’m not mistaken. It doesn’t really matter where they put Purcey, he still has to hit his spots.

Where is Jeremy Accardo ? Last I checked his stats, he seemed to be doing fine down there, why isnt he in the majors ? Whats wrong ? He was dominant 2 years ago, het gets hurt last year and Cito doesnt want him this year ? I like to see Accardo up here instead of Wolfe, no offense Wolfe !

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